Telecinco loses Aug audience share on Olympics

MADRID, Aug 29 (Reuters) - After posting the largest audience share in Spain over the last 29 months, Telecinco (TL5.MC) is likely to end up in third place in August, FormulaTV website said on Friday.

A sector analyst said the loss in audience share “is clearly due to the impact of the Olympic Games and the inroads made by specialised channels.”

With only three days to go before the end of August, Telecinco’s market share stands at 15.0 percent, half a percentage point behind rival Antena 3 A3TV.MC and way behind state-owned channel TVE-1 with 18.8 percent.

The Bejing Olympics were broadcast on TVE-1 and on other state-owned channel La Dos, which posted a 13.7 percent audience share.

In July, Telecinco led the audience share figures with 17.8 percent.

At 10:14 GMT, Telecinco shares lost 0.34 percent to 8.85, while Antena 3 rose 0.32 percent to 6.18, compared to a 46.6 percent rise in the blue chip IBEX-35 index.

A Telecinco spokesman said Friday the broadcaster focused on lower-cost programming in August due to the Bejing games and lower television viewing in August.

“In September, we will be back broadcasting fiction series and our own productions, which have gone down very well in previous months,” the spokesman said.